[One from the archives a.k.a. my old USB sticks. Finding a host of short stories which I forgot all about, so I will be sharing them here over the next few months – after some much needed editing, of course. Most of them were written as part of a writing course I signed up to years ago so they were based on themes which I can’t remember at the moment. Hope you enjoy them.]
‘Are you alright?’
Angie looked up from her recently organised desk and into a freckled smiling face. She couldn’t remember the girl’s name but she smiled back. ‘I’m just a bit tired,’ she answered slowly.
‘You know you don’t have to do so much work today since it’s your first day,’ the nameless girl carried on in a chitchat tone. ‘No one will notice anything you do for about a week or if you’re lucky even longer than that.’
For the second time, Angie smiled politely. She wasn’t sure how to deal with the friendly girl who didn’t seem to be going anywhere. In fact, the girl had positioned herself firmly at the edge of her desk, nearly knocking over the jar of pencils close by. Nameless girl grinned and shook her head.
‘You don’t remember my name, do you? Darren over there introduced us about an hour ago.’ She made a gesture towards the only other person in the room, a short balding man with crooked teeth who had given Angie the grand tour of her new office building.
Now Angie had to make an effort to remember her name. She already felt slightly embarrassed that she had been caught out and didn’t want to give the impression that she didn’t care enough to remember names. She ran her stubby fingers through her thick greying locks in an attempt to recall the long list of names that had been thrown at her earlier on.
‘Rachel?’ she blurted out more as a question than a certainty.
Nameless girl smiled. ‘So you remember. For a minute there I thought you hadn’t the faintest clue who I was.’ Continue reading →
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